Background for Joshua, Judges, and Ruth
Joshua - This Old Testament book tells how Israel entered, conquered, and divided Canaan. In the closing chapter, Joshua calls the people to absolute faithfulness to God and renews covenant with them.
Judges - This Old Testament book deals with the history of the Israelites from the time of Joshua to the time of Samuel. The author is not known. It shows how lack of godly leadership destroys a nation.
Ruth - This Old Testament book tells the story of Naomi and Elimelech who left their homeland in Bethlehem because of famine. They settled in the land of Moab. Elimelech died, and later his two sons died. Naomi was left with her two daughters-in-law, women of Moab. When Naomi decided to return to her homeland, she released the women of any obligation to her and urged them to remain in Moab. Ruth, full of devotion for Naomi, returned with her to Bethlehem. Ruth married Boaz, a kinsman, and became an ancestor of David and Jesus. The book shows the important role a foreigner played in God's plan of salvation.
Joshua - This Old Testament book tells how Israel entered, conquered, and divided Canaan. In the closing chapter, Joshua calls the people to absolute faithfulness to God and renews covenant with them.
Judges - This Old Testament book deals with the history of the Israelites from the time of Joshua to the time of Samuel. The author is not known. It shows how lack of godly leadership destroys a nation.
Ruth - This Old Testament book tells the story of Naomi and Elimelech who left their homeland in Bethlehem because of famine. They settled in the land of Moab. Elimelech died, and later his two sons died. Naomi was left with her two daughters-in-law, women of Moab. When Naomi decided to return to her homeland, she released the women of any obligation to her and urged them to remain in Moab. Ruth, full of devotion for Naomi, returned with her to Bethlehem. Ruth married Boaz, a kinsman, and became an ancestor of David and Jesus. The book shows the important role a foreigner played in God's plan of salvation.
Joshua Devotionals
Joshua 1:9 - Be Not Afraid
Joshua 5:15 - Holy Ground (Holy Day Lesson - the Sabbath)
Joshua 6:16 - Let's Fight On God's Side
**Joshua 10:25 - It's Just One Page
Joshua 18:1 - Still Work to Be Done
Joshua 21:45 - Clear the Forests
Judges Devotionals
Judges 2:21 - To Test You
Judges 3:2 - The Battle Belongs to the Lord
Judges 10:13 - Who Will Save You? (Holy Day Lesson - Days of Unleavened Bread)
***Judges 16;20 - The Presence of the LORD (Holy Day Lesson - Days of Unleavened Bread)
Judges 21:25 - What is Right in Your Own Eyes
Ruth Devotionals
Ruth 1:16 - Gleaning From Ruth
Ruth 4:14 - My Kinsman-Redeemer
Joshua 1:9 - Be Not Afraid
Joshua 5:15 - Holy Ground (Holy Day Lesson - the Sabbath)
Joshua 6:16 - Let's Fight On God's Side
**Joshua 10:25 - It's Just One Page
Joshua 18:1 - Still Work to Be Done
Joshua 21:45 - Clear the Forests
Judges Devotionals
Judges 2:21 - To Test You
Judges 3:2 - The Battle Belongs to the Lord
Judges 10:13 - Who Will Save You? (Holy Day Lesson - Days of Unleavened Bread)
***Judges 16;20 - The Presence of the LORD (Holy Day Lesson - Days of Unleavened Bread)
Judges 21:25 - What is Right in Your Own Eyes
Ruth Devotionals
Ruth 1:16 - Gleaning From Ruth
Ruth 4:14 - My Kinsman-Redeemer
Be Not Afraid
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
Have you looked up a list of phobias lately? I did. I was amazed at not only the things of which people are afraid, but also the fact there are names for them! Of course, the fear of heights (altophobia or acrophobia) is well-known, as is the fear of spiders, arachnephobia. But there’s also the fear of snakes, snakephobia or ophidiophobia. There’s the fear of cats, which actually has five different words for it. Felinophobia seemed the most memorable to me. The fear of words is verbophobia and the fear of long words is either sesquipedalophobia or hippopotomonstrosesquipedalophobia. The one which made me grin, probably because I’ve only had a teenager for a couple of years, is ephebiphobia, the fear of teenagers. (Source: phobialist.com)
There are many things of which we are afraid, and it’s been that way for a very long time. The first instance of fear in the Bible is in Genesis 3:10. Adam told God that he was afraid because he was naked. The people were afraid of the smoking and thundering Mt. Sinai in Exodus 20:18. Even in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:25, the one who hid his talents said that he was afraid of his master, that he was a hard man, so that was why he hid his talent in the ground instead of doing something with it.
Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:8), Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:6), Peter (Luke 5:10), Paul (Acts 18:9), and Joshua (Joshua 1:9) were all told not to be afraid. God had given them a task to do. It was going to require courage, but God was with them, and they would succeed. We, too, by extension, because we are God’s people, have this command and assurance that God is with us, that we are not to be afraid.
Isaiah 44:6-8 says: Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts [the God of angel armies]: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”
John 14:27 says: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Implicit in these two verses is the idea that God’s people are not afraid because they believe in and trust God. David clearly states this in Psalm 27:1: The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
My favorite example of not being afraid is Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, although we are more familiar with their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When faced with a command from King Nebuchadnezzar, which would violate God’s command, these three young men refused, even faced with death. Their response to the king is amazing! “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). The faith of these three young men in the Great God of the universe was incredibly strong. They didn’t just say that God would save them; they said God could save them. But they were not going to transgress God’s laws even if it wasn’t God’s will to save them.
How could they do that? Why were they able to have such courage and conviction? 1 John 4:18 says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” David writes, in Psalm 56:3, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you.” Both of these verses strongly imply relationship with the only One who has the ability to hold your life in His hand. If you don’t have a relationship with God, your gods of stone and wood are not going to save you from the trouble to come. In Adam’s case, he’d damaged the relationship with God. In Exodus, the Israelites didn’t trust God. In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, the servant didn’t know and love his master. He wasn’t serving him with all of his heart. In all these cases, the relationship wasn’t there to prevent the fear; the relationship wasn’t there to be able to trust.
Nevertheless, it isn’t that we’re never going to be afraid. Fear is programmed into our consciousness to keep us from doing stupid things - like walking over high bridges or playing with poisonous vipers. It’s our response to those feelings of fear that matter. We need to consider the situation. If it’s not something we should be doing, fear is a motivator to stop doing it. Arachnephobia keeps me from playing with spiders. But if fear is due to someone trying to force me to stop serving God, then I have to do what I know to be right in God’s sight and to trust Him for the outcome, even if we’re talking about ephebiphobia (the fear of teenagers).
Holy Ground
And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. Joshua 5:15
Who is this commander of the LORD’s army? Likely, this is the One who would become Jesus Christ. Notice that when Joshua fell down and worshiped, Joshua was not rebuked. (There are numerous instances where an angel rebuked the person who fell down and worshipped them.) In addition, notice that the ground was holy. Only God can make the ground holy.
This incident should make you think of another, similar incident where the person was told to take off his sandals because the ground was holy (Exodus 3:1-6). Moses, when he investigated the burning bush, was told by God to take off his sandals because the ground was holy. God introduced Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. You know this story. God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go”. When Pharaoh wouldn’t, God didn’t just stage a military coup; God destroyed Egypt militarily, politically, economically, and religiously. Then God brought the Israelites out, performed miracles of water and manna, fought for them and delivered their enemies into their hands, and led them with fire by night and a cloud by day. The apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 10:4 that the Israelites drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
There’s a lot of evidence to indicate that the God who led the Israelites out of Egypt and the Commander of the LORD’s army were both the One who would become Jesus Christ.
Perhaps this is startling to you. Perhaps you think that Jesus had long hair and looked almost effeminate. You would be wrong. There’s nothing weak or wimpy about Jesus Christ. That’s one of the pictures we can take away from Joshua’s encounter with the Commander of the LORD’s army: our God is the victorious warrior. Read Revelation 19:11-16. The rider on the white horse, who is called Faithful and True and has the name “The Word of God,” will strike the nations with a sharp sword proceeding from His mouth. The God we serve is mighty and powerful, and none can stand before Him.
This is the God who said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.”
So in your life, with what do you come into contact that God says is holy? One thing you routinely encounter that God has declared holy is the Sabbath. How do you approach it? Do you metaphorically take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy? Do you treat the Sabbath as holy? Do you show it the honor it deserves because God has declared it holy? Think about it. What made that ground holy? God said it was. What makes the Sabbath holy? God says it is. Could some person come along later and say that the ground was not holy? Do people come along later and say that the Sabbath is no longer holy? No person has a higher authority than God to change His decrees.
Take some time to consider what God has declared holy and how you treat that item, that day, or that person. It’s important to your relationship with the God who created all things - the One who is Himself holy.
Let’s Fight On God’s Side
And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout for the LORD has given you the city.” ~Joshua 6:16
How many hymns can you think of that refer to a battle?
The Battle Belongs to the Lord
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
Victory in Jesus
I?m in the Lord’s Army
Onward, Christian Soldiers
Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus
Why? Why is this theme of a battle and fighting such a prevalent theme in our church hymns? Are you fighting a battle? Are you marching around a city, as Joshua was, to conquer it?
Not exactly. But you are involved in war, just as much as Joshua and the Israelites were in taking the land. You don’t war against flesh and blood, but against the wiles of Satan to deceive you and draw you away from God. If you are trying to fight this enemy on your own, you won’t win. You cannot hope to defeat Satan’s schemes through your own strength. You need Jesus Christ.
There’s an interesting encounter in Joshua 5:13-15. Joshua sees a heavenly army. He asks the commander of the army who he is for - Israel or the enemy. He is told neither! He is the commander of the army of the Lord. When Joshua worships him, when Joshua is told to take off his shoes because he’s on holy ground, we see that this commander is truly the Commander - the One who would become Jesus Christ. (If he’d worshipped an angel, he would’ve been rebuked. Additionally, an angel wouldn’t have made the ground holy.) The point is: Joshua’s battles would go in Joshua’s favor, IF he was fighting according to God’s will. It was a matter of Joshua fighting on God’s side - not God fighting on Joshua’s side.
Too often we talk in terms of God fighting on our side. How egocentric we are!! It’s not all about us! The world doesn’t revolve around us. The world is the Lord’s and all that is in it. We must make sure that we’re fighting battles because we’re seeking God first. We can’t begin a battle and then ask God to fight with us.
A battle is being waged all around us; let’s fight on God’s side.
Still Work to be Done
Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them. Joshua 18:1
Do you set goals for yourself? Do you have plans and projects you want to do? Do you have a bucket list? Do you make a to-do list for yourself every day, every week, every year?
I like lists. I find myself better organized to get more accomplished if I have spent some time thinking about what I want to get done. So I have a daily/weekly list. But accompanying that short-term framework, I also have longer range goals. Right now, my overarching goal is to accomplish everything that needs to be done by Passover: cleaning the whole house, working on the garden as the weather permits, finishing up formal homeschooling for the year, and preparing my heart and mind for the upcoming Holy Days. There are other goals and projects mixed in which have no definite end: I’m working on crocheting a blanket. I want to build a corner shelf in my kitchen. I’m reading the Bible each day.
The reality is: there’s a lot to be done. Inherent in the process of setting goals is using your time wisely - not only in being able to accomplish more, but also in accomplishing what is most important. When you set goals, you tend to put some thought into what is most important that has to be done first. That usually goes at the top of the list. Think about it on a tiny scale: grocery shopping. When I used to shop at the same store all the time, I got so I knew exactly where everything was. So when I’d make out my grocery list, I’d start by listing everything I knew I needed. Then I’d go back and arrange that list by where I’d find it in the store. That eliminates getting to the end of the store with a full cart and realizing you walked right by something that’s clear on the other side of the store .
Or think about running errands. I always plan my errands in sequence. If I have to go to the post office, the bank, the library, the grocery store, and the craft store, I plan them in the most efficient route. It would be the height of ridiculousness to drive right by one of the stops and end up having to drive miles out of my way to get back to it. Gas is expensive. But, really, time is much more valuable!
So I make lists. I work towards goals. But what happens when I have completed everything on my list? I throw the list away. What happens when I reach a goal? I turn my attention to what needs to be done next. There’s always something to do. There’s still work to be done.
I wonder if that’s how the Israelites felt when they finally took the land. It took seven years, from the time of the crossing of the Jordan, to reach the point where Joshua 18:1 records, “The land lay subdued before them.” This goal had been a long time coming! God had promised this land to Abraham some 500 years before! The goal of reaching the Promised Land had been before the people’s eyes since they came out of Egypt. Forty years of wandering in the wilderness had ensued. Seven years of conquering the land was behind them. Finally, they were there. Now what?
They started right. Joshua 18:1 says, “Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them.” They set up the tent of meeting, the place where they would worship God, where they could go to inquire of God. The implication is that, even though they’d reached their goal of taking the land, they knew they still needed God. They knew that worshiping God was still on their to-do list.
But we know how the story unfolded. Israel entered the period of the judges. They would start out serving God. Things would be going well. Then they’d start to serve the false gods around them. God would give them into the hands of their enemies who would make their lives miserable. So the Israelites would call out to God to save them. He’d send a judge to save them. Then, as long as that judge lived, the land would have rest and the people would serve God. As soon as that judge died, the cycle would start again: apostasy, oppression, repentance, salvation - over and over again.
So, does this history have any relevance to our lives today? Human nature is still the same. We are still tempted and drawn away from God and His ways by the things around us. We still have the tendency to seek God while there’s a goal to be met, when we know we need Him to help us get through whatever battle we’re presently fighting. But what do we do when we finally have finished the battle and are at rest? What do I do when I finish reading through the Bible? Do I set the Bible on the shelf and say, “O.K. That’s done. What book shall I read next?” What do I do when I’ve finally done everything that has to be done before Passover? Do I pat myself on the back and just let the house get dirty again, and, more importantly, stop evaluating my actions against the plumb line of God’s Word? What do we do when we’ve reached a major goal?
Too many people are deceived into thinking their major, long-term goals are their overarching reason d’être, their reason for existing. Some young people see finishing school as their overarching goal. Finishing school becomes their reason d’être. Then, when they’ve finished school, they don’t know what to do with themselves. Some mothers see their reason d’être as raising their children. So when the children are grown and out of the house, the mothers feel like they have no purpose in life. And the list goes on. Too many people feel like rudderless ships. They don’t know where they’re going in life because they don’t have that overarching goal, that purpose, that reason d’être. So they try to find it in temporal pleasures: doing what feels good at the moment, drugs, alcohol, relationships - all of which are unfulfilling in the end because they are not our reason d’etre.
They’re missing the main goal at the top of their to-do list: love God and serve Him forever.
Loving God and serving Him forever is the first thing which is written at the top of our daily project list. It’s the glasses through which we must view the rest of our endeavors. It becomes not just a goal to reach, but who we are. It’s not saying six sentences to God in the morning and then I’m done for the rest of the day. It’s not the first errand to accomplish when we’re out running errands; it’s the mantle we wear as we’re running those errands. Loving God and serving Him forever is indelibly written on our to-do lists - if we belong to God.
And, if we belong to God, God’s right there with us as we accomplish each more minor goal. The Israelites had conquered the land; it lay subdued before them. They set up the tent of meeting; God was with them, dwelling in the midst of Israel. They just had to keep God first in their lives. They just had to put Him and His ways at the top of their daily to-do list. There was still work to be done, and they desperately needed God to be part of their daily lives. We have to learn the lesson recorded for us: we have to be sure that God is dwelling in the midst of us, that He’s part of the fabric of our daily lives, that He’s at the top of our to-do list, that loving Him and serving Him forever is our primary goal, our reason d’être. Because, as long as we’re alive, there’s lots to accomplish; there’s still work to be done.
**It’s Just One Page
Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. . . . Joshua 10:25
Materials Needed: flip book
Many years ago, I gave Christopher a small pad of paper. Hours later he came back with a flip book that he’d created. Starting at the bottom, he drew a picture. The next page up, he drew a similar picture, with just minor variations. And so he continued until he had dozens of pages completed. When you flip through the pages, all of those minor variations become movement and action and tell the story.
Our lives, each day or event, is like one of those pages. It’s not perfect. In fact, things may be going quite wrong. But it’s just one day or event. It’s just one page. And we know who the page-turner is: our Sovereign God, Almighty Father, King of the universe. He’s the one who orders our lives and turns the pages.
Furthermore, we know the end of the story. We know what the very last page will look like - if we belong to God. We will dwell with God forever, in a place where there are no more tears, no more sorrows, no more pain, no more death.
So when you’re sitting on a page and you don’t like how the plot is progressing, remind yourself, “Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. .” because God has you. He loves you. He wants the very best for you. And you’re going to like it!
And this page right here today? Well, it’s just one page.
Clear the Forests
“Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” ~Joshua 21:45
In Joshua chapter 17, there’s an interesting story. The people of Ephraim and Manasseh came to Joshua and asked for more land, because they were so numerous. Joshua told them that they were strong enough to go clear the forest and to drive out the giants who lived in the land they’d already been given.
Then we read Joshua 21:45 where we’re told that not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. So what were those promises?
God promised He’d be with them. God promised He’d give them an inheritance in the land. Can you think of any other promises in the Bible?
Well, God promised Noah that He’d never again destroy the whole earth with water. God promises salvation through Jesus Christ. God promises that Jesus is coming again. And like the promises to the house of Israel, God has promised to you that He’ll never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrew 13:5). He has also promised you an inheritance - eternal life in His kingdom.
But, like Hebrews 11:13-16 states, we may not see the realization of those promises in this life. We may die before Christ returns to set up His kingdom. But that doesn’t change our responsibility to live as subjects of that kingdom and of the King. We must never let life and the battles we must still face, the giants we must battle convince us that God isn’t or won’t keep His promises. Hebrews 12:1 says that since we have such a great cloud of witnesses, we must lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles and run the race set before us. That sin which so easily entangles is the lack of faith that God will keep His promises. That lack of faith can keep us from utilizing the gifts that God has already given us to fight the giants, to win the battles, and to clear the forest.
Make no mistake: you have the strength to accomplish the task God has set before you. Stay close to Him. Seek His will in your life. But clear the forests!
To Test You
“I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,” ~ Judges 2:21
The story of Israel began with Abram. God called him and told him to go to a place that God would show him. He told him, once he got to Canaan, that He would give him every place where his foot would step. It was a huge inheritance. Only . . . Abraham didn’t live to see that promise fulfilled. And in fact, neither did his son Isaac, or his son Jacob, or his son Joseph. Joseph didn’t even stay in the land - he was sold as a slave in Egypt and never again lived in the land God had promised to give to Abraham.
But God brought Israel out of Egypt with many wonders - the ten plagues. He parted the waters of the Red Sea so the people would walk across on dry land - not wading through the mud even!! He gave them water from a rock. He gave them manna to eat. God gave them victories over their enemies - like Jericho and Ai and Sihon and Og. Over and over and over again, God showed His great power and His long- suffering with His people.
How did Israel respond to God’s desire for a covenant relationship with them? Oh, they were good for a while, but then it didn’t take long for them to complain, to murmur, and to serve the pagan gods of the nations around them. So we come to Judges 2:21. God was no longer willing to drive out the inhabitants of the land - about which He’d told His people that they’d become thorns in their flesh and snares to them.
It’s interesting: the word “left” as in “the nations that Joshua left” comes from a Hebrew word which means “permitted to continue.” So we could say the verse this way: I will no longer drove out before them any of the nations that Joshua permitted to continue when he died.
The next verse tells us that God left the inhabitants so that He could test the people to see if they would serve God or not. So. Why do you have problems in your life? Sometimes it’s just because we live in a fallen, sinful world. Sometimes it’s because God wants to know if we’re going to serve Him and praise Him - no matter what! We don’t know the end of the story.
There’s a great song out by Laura Story called “Blessings.” She sings “What if your blessings come through raindrops; what if your healing comes through tears; what if a thousand sleepless nights is what is takes to know you’re near.”
What if some of those things that we think are the troubles and trials of life are the things that God knows we need in order to get us into His kingdom. They are the things that build our character and mold us in the way He wants us to be. But we see them as troubles and trials and we get angry at God for allowing them.
We can’t get angry at God. We have to give Him praise for being our God, for being in control, for being Sovereign. Even if He never gives us anything else, He’s blessed us with His Son as our Savior and the promise of being adopted into the very family of God. Are we going to complain about a few thorns?
We must determine that we’re going to serve and praise God every day, all day, regardless of our circumstances. If things go well, we praise Him. If things don’t go well, we praise Him. He is worthy of our praise. He is our God.
Don’t fail the test!
The Battle Belongs to the Lord
It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. Judges 3:2
Have you endured any pre-Passover tribulations this year? Anything unusual or unexpected pop up in your life that discombobulated you within the past month or so? Ask some of the church members who have been around for awhile: it’s normal, and almost expected, to have some sort of problem before Passover.
Do you remember the story of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20? It’s the episode where the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Edomites all came up against Jehoshaphat and Judah. The Bible calls them “a great horde.”
And then there’s Judges 3:2: It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. In the previous chapter, God says, “I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died . . .” (Judges 2:21).
All three of these situations are guaranteed to produce one thing: a reaction in the people of God. So how did the people of Israel react when they had to go to war against the nations who were dwelling in the land? They didn’t react well. They won a few battles, but when things started going well, they began to be drawn away from serving God. They looked to those nations, the same ones against whom they would have to go to war, they would look to those nations to see how they worshipped their gods. Israel would adopt those pagan customs, over and over again!
How did Jehoshaphat react when he saw the hordes of people coming up against Judah for battle? He goes before God and retells how mighty our God is, how God had promised this land to the Israelites, how the people coming up against them were the ones God wouldn’t permit them to drive out of the land (the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Edomites). Then in 2 Chronicles 19:12 Jehoshaphat says, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you?”
So, how do you react when you have problems in your life, unexpected things which range on the scale from annoying to life-threatening? What is your response?
God is very interested in your response to the trouble in your life. When God told the Israelites that He’d no longer drive out the inhabitants of the land, that the people would have to learn war, God also told them why. Judges 2:22 relates the reason: “in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not.”
When the Israelites, during the time of the judges, did not continue to walk in the ways of the LORD, God delivered them into the hands of their enemies. By contrast, when Jehoshaphat relied on God, God told Jehoshaphat to go out to battle, but that he would not have to fight the battle. Jehoshaphat believed and trusted God so completely, do you know who he sent out first? The singers! Praising God! This is not normally who goes first to engage in battle! But as they did, here’s what 2 Chronicles 20:22-23 says, “And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir . . . they all helped to destroy one another.” God gained the victory for them - indisputably!
Here’s the point of the whole thing: You’re going to have trouble in this life. It could be because of your own poor decisions. It could be because we live in a fallen world. It could be the Enemy fighting against you, trying to draw you away from our God. It could also be God testing you, to see what is in your heart. Regardless, when trouble comes, I want to react as Jehoshaphat did; I want to look to God and say, “I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are on you.” I want to have a close relationship with God, where I’ve daily communicated with Him, where I’ve asked Him to guide my steps and make my path straight before my feet. I do not want to follow the path of the Israelites during the time of the judges; I don’t want to go through their apostasy, servitude, supplication, and salvation cycles. But it’s a daily choice. I have a myriad of choices to make each day: one path leads to bumps and bruises and having to learn war; the other path may have a few bumps and bruises, but I rely on God to fight my battles. I’d rather the battle belonged to the Lord.
Who Will Save You?
Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Judges 10:13
My brother, Bob, was three years older than me. Even though he pestered me and aggravated me until I was almost ready to scream, numerous times he rescued me from whatever predicament in which I found myself. He’s the one who taught me to ride a bike. He’s the one who, after I badly sliced my foot open on a shard of glass, slung me over his back and carried me back to the ranch house - even though I was nearly the same weight. He was a great older brother.
Another interesting fact about my childhood was my proclivity to sleep walk and sleep talk.
These two facts, my active sleeping and my older brother, as rescuer, collided one night at my grandparents’ ranch. Bob heard noise from the room I shared with my sister and came to investigate. I was jumping up and down on my bed, yelling, “Get ‘em, Bobby! Get ‘em!” I had no recollection of it the next morning, so we’re not completely sure what I was dreaming.
The reality is: we all need to be rescued from things in this life. Who do we look to?
Judges 10:13 says, “Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more.” If God is not going to save us because we’ve forsaken Him and served other gods, maybe we’d figure out what serving other gods entails.
The outright worship of other gods is obvious. Burning your children in the fire to Molech, building an altar to Baal, baking cakes to the queen of heaven - those all fall into the category of serving other gods in a very obvious sense.
But there are less obvious ways of serving other gods. For instance, when Micah (in Judges 17-18) made his own ephod, ordained a Levite as a priest, he said, “Now I know the LORD will prosper me because I have a Levite as a priest” (Judges 17:13). Wow! He’d broken so many of God’s commandments. He had a houseful of gods. He set up a Levite, specifically Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, as a priest, when the priests were supposed to come only from Aaron’s line. Yet, Micah thought God would be pleased with him because he had a Levite as his priest. The syncretism, the blending of what was right in God’s sight with what was right in his own eyes, was incredible! Needless to say, God did not prosper Micah!
Another instance of syncretism, blending God’s ways with pagan ways, is seen in the construction of the golden calf. The Israelites took that calf and declared that the next day would be a festival to Jehovah! All the time they had disobeyed God by making a golden idol, they decide to worship the One True God with the very object of disobedience!
Disobedience can happen on a daily level too - even during the Days of Unleavened Bread. The command is to get the leavening out of your house, and out of your borders, for seven days. Some people think that’s a little over the top. They think God didn’t really mean for us to do that.
Then there are others who think you should get the leavening out, but they don’t do the other half of the command: to eat unleavened bread for seven days. Some people don’t like how it tastes and they really don’t think God would require it of us. He’d understand if we just don’t want to do it!
The curious thing about this whole continuum of disobedience from not wanting to eat unleavened bread to burning your own children in the fire to a pagan deity, the curious thing is that whenever you disobey God, you’ve put something else or someone else in His place; you’ve decided that something else trumps God. You’ve allowed something else to become first in your life. It can be your own desires. It can be the desires of your friend or boss. It can be the gods of your imagination.
So God has a message for you, if you’re going to put something or someone else before Him. Judges 10:13 says, “Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more.” And verse 14 goes on to say, “Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen, let them save you in the time of your distress.”
So, what’s the bottom line? Are we obeying God to obtain salvation? No, absolutely not! Our salvation is a free gift from God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, lest any man boast. Nevertheless, if we’re not willing to obey God, it’s an indication that we may not have trusted Jesus Christ for our salvation. Our works are evidence of the new creature that was begun in us when we repented of our sins, accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for our sins, and were baptized to receive the indwelling of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
My older brother died almost thirteen years ago, but truly, he couldn’t really save me from all of the trouble I can get myself into anyway. But I have an Older Brother, Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7:25 says, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
But you have to draw near to be saved. That’s implies an intimate relationship. That implies obedience to God’s law. That underlines even the necessity of eating unleavened bread every day during the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Who will save you?
***The Presence of the LORD
But he did not know that the LORD had left him. Judges 16:20
Material needed: small toy, stuffed animal, etc. (During the following discussion, have someone swipe the toy/stuffed animal. If the kids don’t notice, bring it up. If the kids do notice, use it as an example of being aware of God’s presence.)
Here we are - at the end of the Days of Unleavened Bread. We’ve eaten unleavened bread for seven days. Do you remember why we did that? Well, first, because God said to! But also, we eat unleavened bread as a reminder to seek God and His ways, to choose Him when making decisions, to take Jesus into our hearts (thoughts, words, and deeds) always. Regardless of how you say it, it’s a matter of being totally devoted to Him, seeking to do His will in all things. The discipline of eating unleavened bread for seven days is a good reminder to eschew the ungodly choices that are all around us.
So someone might ask why we don’t eat unleavened bread all the time and keep the leavening out always. If we did that, we soon would lose the awareness of how easily sin can manifest itself in our lives from the most unexpected places. And really, yeast isn’t bad for 51 weeks out of the year. Just for one week it becomes a symbol for us - an object lesson - a teaching tool.
As we go back to eating yeasty bread again, we are reminded that it’s not that the yeast is sin, but that we need to carry the lessons of the Days of Unleavened Bread through the rest of the year. As we go back to our lives and to eating bread, we can’t become so distracted that we forget to keep God first, to seek His ways first, to want to please Him first!
That’s why this scripture scares me! Samson was so caught up in his life that he didn’t even realize that the LORD had left him!! Saul knew that God’s presence had left him, and he was scared of David because the LORD was with David!! (1 Samuel 18:12) And then there’s the Presence of the LORD leaving the temple in Ezekiel 10. For the people to become so wicked that God’s Presence would leave the place that was called by His Name!! That should scare you half to death!!
It’s a valuable lesson! We’re going back to eating leavened bread tomorrow. But we mustn’t forget to keep God first! We must keep our eyes on Him, seeking Him will all of our hearts. It would be terrible if He left us and we didn’t even notice.
What Is Right in Your Own Eyes
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” ~ Judges 21:25
Judges is a hard book to read. It is a record of the cyclical history of Israel: They serve God; God blesses them; Israel forgets God; God allows their enemies to oppress Israel; Israel repents and turns to God; God saves them from their enemies; Israel serves God; God blesses them; Israel forgets God . . . and so on.
There are some particularly disturbing passages: Samson’s attraction to Philistine women, Gideon’s ephod, Micah ordaining a priest, the tribe of Dan stealing Micah’s idol and priest, the Sodom-like conduct in Gebeah, Benjamin’s refusal to turn over the criminals resulting in civil war, and Israel’s condoning kidnapping for Benjamin to acquire wives after the war.
In instance after instance, the people did what was right in their own eyes. They didn’t seek God. They didn’t ask for His direction. They didn’t follow His laws. But, you know, we’re not too different from Israel. Our carnal nature is emnity against God; we always seek our own way and our own pleasure. What’s worse is that we want to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. (It always goes back to the Garden of Eden!) We want to do what is right in our own eyes.
Usually that translates to whatever gives us pleasure or makes us comfortable. I want to challenge you to think: is it right or is it just easier? Most of the time, we want what is easy, whether it is right or not. Again, we have a tendency to lean towards what makes us happy in the short term, what makes us feel good right now, what benefits us in the present.
But God’s perspective is for eternity and He knows what we need to get us there. It’s time to trust Him in all things. We need to do what is right in God’s eyes.
Gleaning from Ruth
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Ruth 1:16
Do you know the story of Ruth? She marries into a Jewish family which is sojourning in Moab because there’s a famine in their land. First, Ruth’s father-in-law dies. Then her husband and her brother-in-law die. Then her mother-in-law, Naomi, gets word that God has given his people food: the famine is over. So Naomi prepares to go back to her hometown, Bethlehem. She has such a strong relationship with her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, that they both intend to go with her. But she basically tells them there’s no future for them; they need to go back to their own families so that they can eventually find new husbands. Orpah goes back to her own family. But Ruth utters these famous words: “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
What unfolds is a beautiful story of a God-honoring woman who obeys her mother-in-law. God blesses Ruth with a husband, but a husband who is a close relative of Naomi: a kinsman-redeemer. But the story gets better! Ruth becomes the great-grandmother of King David, and therefore, the ancestor of Jesus, the Messiah. This beautiful story, from the time of the judges, is such a huge contrast to the human failings, the carnality, displayed so prominently in the book of Judges. In addition, it is rich in foreshadowing events in the life of one of Ruth’s descendants, Jesus Christ.
There was a day when Jesus was teaching in Capernaum when he told the crowd, “I am the bread that came down from heaven. . . . I am the bread of life. . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” This was such a hard thing for the people to hear that many turned back from following Jesus, the Messiah.
Perhaps it’s just coincidence that Bethlehem means “house of bread.” Perhaps it’s just coincidence that Elimelech and Naomi left Bethlehem because of a famine. Perhaps it’s just coincidence that the author of Ruth phrases the reason for Naomi’s return to Bethlehem: Naomi “heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.” Perhaps it’s just coincidence that Jesus said he was the bread that came down from heaven. But the next section in John 6:66-68 is so striking: After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Ruth had seen something in Naomi that caused her to be willing to stay with her, to give up her family, her country, her home, her gods in order to follow her. Similarly, Peter and the other disciples knew that Jesus had what they needed for eternal life.
There’s another interesting parallel. After Christ’s resurrection, yet before He’d ascended to the Father, Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb. Jesus asked her why she was weeping. Mary didn’t recognize him until He called her “Mary.” Then Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” This is so similar to what Ruth originally said to Naomi. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. And yet, at the time she said it to Naomi, it’s doubtful that she knew Boaz would come forward to be her kinsman-redeemer. But Jesus knew. Jesus knew that in His death and resurrection, He would become the kinsman-redeemer to all who are called according to the will of the Father, to all who believe on His name for salvation.
Look at what Jesus says to Mary: “Go to my brothers.” In Christ’s death and resurrection, we are adopted into the family of God. Then Jesus makes it very clear to Mary - because he’s paralleling the words of a story that would have been very familiar to those who knew the scriptures, the story of Ruth. In using that structure, Jesus was telling Mary that He, Jesus, had become the kinsman-redeemer to his people. It’s such an interesting parallel. Jesus’ disciples went with Christ; they followed Him wherever He went. Through His death and resurrection, His people (the Father) became their people (their Father) and His God their God (reconciled to the Father through the Son).
The barley harvest is just beginning this year; why don’t you read the book of Ruth again, and see what you can glean.
My Kinsman-Redeemer
Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a kinsman-redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel. Ruth 4:14
The first time I saw Jason Gray’s video of “Remind Me Who I Am,” I was so struck by the reality of the words. We are, each of us, sinful, carnal human beings who manage to embroil ourselves in ungodly situations. Some of the signs in the video are unloved, rejected, angry, betrayed, used, refugee, addict. All of them tug at the heart as realization of the universality of the hopelessness of existence without Christ sets in.
That’s where Naomi found herself. Her husband has died. She’s too old to get a new husband. Her two sons have died. She has no one to perpetuate the family name.
Because of the relationship between Naomi and Ruth, Ruth is determined to follow Naomi back to Bethlehem. But it’s not an easy life. Ruth is found with the poor of the land, gleaning the fields for food after the harvesters have taken the shocks of grain. It’s dangerous (as inferred in Ruth 2:8-9). It’s very hard work. Both Naomi and Ruth are struggling just to have enough food to eat.
Enter the kinsman-redeemer. Who was the kinsman-redeemer? Boaz? To whom was he a kinsman-redeemer? He was the close kinsman of Naomi’s dead husband, Elimelech. But what was a kinsman-redeemer?
A kinsman-redeemer was God’s merciful way of rescuing a person from dire conditions. If a person found themselves in debt, they could sell themselves. A kinsman-redeemer could redeem them, pay their debt. If a person sold a piece of property, their inheritance from the Lord, the kinsman-redeemer could buy the parcel back to keep it in the family. (Leviticus 25) The redemption needed by both Naomi and Ruth was the perpetuation of the line of Elimelech. By marrying Ruth, Boaz purposed to fulfill that need (Ruth 4:5), to perpetuate the name fo the dead in his inheritance.
A kinsman-redeemer had to be a close relative, but, as we see in Ruth 4:6, that didn’t always ensure he would provide the needed redemption. There also had to be the desire to redeem. Otherwise, the opportunity would fall to the next closest relative. Boaz, in the story of Ruth, was not the closest relative, but he was the one who cared about Ruth enough to redeem Naomi’s land and to marry Ruth.
So, this beautiful story of Ruth reaches down to King David and on to our Messiah, Jesus Christ - the ultimate kinsman-redeemer.
But wait? Are we related to Him? Is He our kinsman? Jesus said that those who do the will of His Father in heaven are His brothers and sisters (Mark 3:35). Furthermore, Romans tells us that we are part of the family of God, that our spirit testifies with His Spirit that we are the children of God (Romans 8:15-17; Galatians 4:6; 1 John 3:2). Jesus is our Elder Brother. He’s our kinsman.
Furthermore, there’s no doubt that he’s our Redeemer. (Job 19:25; Psalm 19:14; Isaiah 44:6, 48:17, 59:20; 1 Corinthians 1:30)
In essence, the story of Ruth foreshadows Jesus Christ becoming our Kinsman-Redeemer. We have been sold as slaves to sin (Romans 7:14), and while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), God sent His Son, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, to become the propitiation for our sin (I John 2:2), reconciling us to the Father (Romans 5:10-11, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20). This is huge! Remember the two qualities of the kinsman-redeemer? First, He had to have the means. Jesus Christ is the only One who could pay the sin debt for all mankind. No one else is worthy. Because He is the builder of the house, Jesus is worth more than all of the house (Hebrews 3:3). He is the only possible proper payment! (1 John 4:10; Romans 3:25) So Jesus had the means to redeem us.
Secondly, He had to care, to have the desire to redeem us. Stop to think about this! These human beings, these created beings who owe everything they have and their very lives to God, are nevertheless in rebellion against God (Romans 8:7). Yet, while we were yet sinners God sent His Son to die for us. That’s love of a magnitude that we cannot even comprehend.
I love the story of Ruth. The character of Ruth and Boaz is so admirable and praiseworthy. But their lives give glory to God beyond what we can see within these four chapters. As the writer of Hebrews said of Abel, we can also say of Ruth and Boaz: “And by faith [they] still speak, even though [they] are dead” (Hebrews 11:4). Both of their lives are woven into the tapestry of lives who testify to God’s plan, God’s greatness, God’s character. Not only are they honored to be the progenitors of Jesus Christ, they also get to foreshadow the gospel and His work on the cross to become our Kinsman-Redeemer. Wow! What a legacy!
Beloved of Christ, what do you think your legacy will look like?
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
Have you looked up a list of phobias lately? I did. I was amazed at not only the things of which people are afraid, but also the fact there are names for them! Of course, the fear of heights (altophobia or acrophobia) is well-known, as is the fear of spiders, arachnephobia. But there’s also the fear of snakes, snakephobia or ophidiophobia. There’s the fear of cats, which actually has five different words for it. Felinophobia seemed the most memorable to me. The fear of words is verbophobia and the fear of long words is either sesquipedalophobia or hippopotomonstrosesquipedalophobia. The one which made me grin, probably because I’ve only had a teenager for a couple of years, is ephebiphobia, the fear of teenagers. (Source: phobialist.com)
There are many things of which we are afraid, and it’s been that way for a very long time. The first instance of fear in the Bible is in Genesis 3:10. Adam told God that he was afraid because he was naked. The people were afraid of the smoking and thundering Mt. Sinai in Exodus 20:18. Even in the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:25, the one who hid his talents said that he was afraid of his master, that he was a hard man, so that was why he hid his talent in the ground instead of doing something with it.
Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:8), Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:6), Peter (Luke 5:10), Paul (Acts 18:9), and Joshua (Joshua 1:9) were all told not to be afraid. God had given them a task to do. It was going to require courage, but God was with them, and they would succeed. We, too, by extension, because we are God’s people, have this command and assurance that God is with us, that we are not to be afraid.
Isaiah 44:6-8 says: Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts [the God of angel armies]: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”
John 14:27 says: Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.
Implicit in these two verses is the idea that God’s people are not afraid because they believe in and trust God. David clearly states this in Psalm 27:1: The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
My favorite example of not being afraid is Hananiah, Azariah, and Mishael, although we are more familiar with their Babylonian names: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When faced with a command from King Nebuchadnezzar, which would violate God’s command, these three young men refused, even faced with death. Their response to the king is amazing! “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up” (Daniel 3:17-18). The faith of these three young men in the Great God of the universe was incredibly strong. They didn’t just say that God would save them; they said God could save them. But they were not going to transgress God’s laws even if it wasn’t God’s will to save them.
How could they do that? Why were they able to have such courage and conviction? 1 John 4:18 says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” David writes, in Psalm 56:3, “When I am afraid, I will trust in you.” Both of these verses strongly imply relationship with the only One who has the ability to hold your life in His hand. If you don’t have a relationship with God, your gods of stone and wood are not going to save you from the trouble to come. In Adam’s case, he’d damaged the relationship with God. In Exodus, the Israelites didn’t trust God. In the parable of the talents in Matthew 25, the servant didn’t know and love his master. He wasn’t serving him with all of his heart. In all these cases, the relationship wasn’t there to prevent the fear; the relationship wasn’t there to be able to trust.
Nevertheless, it isn’t that we’re never going to be afraid. Fear is programmed into our consciousness to keep us from doing stupid things - like walking over high bridges or playing with poisonous vipers. It’s our response to those feelings of fear that matter. We need to consider the situation. If it’s not something we should be doing, fear is a motivator to stop doing it. Arachnephobia keeps me from playing with spiders. But if fear is due to someone trying to force me to stop serving God, then I have to do what I know to be right in God’s sight and to trust Him for the outcome, even if we’re talking about ephebiphobia (the fear of teenagers).
Holy Ground
And the commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. Joshua 5:15
Who is this commander of the LORD’s army? Likely, this is the One who would become Jesus Christ. Notice that when Joshua fell down and worshiped, Joshua was not rebuked. (There are numerous instances where an angel rebuked the person who fell down and worshipped them.) In addition, notice that the ground was holy. Only God can make the ground holy.
This incident should make you think of another, similar incident where the person was told to take off his sandals because the ground was holy (Exodus 3:1-6). Moses, when he investigated the burning bush, was told by God to take off his sandals because the ground was holy. God introduced Himself to Moses as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. You know this story. God sent Moses to tell Pharaoh to “Let my people go”. When Pharaoh wouldn’t, God didn’t just stage a military coup; God destroyed Egypt militarily, politically, economically, and religiously. Then God brought the Israelites out, performed miracles of water and manna, fought for them and delivered their enemies into their hands, and led them with fire by night and a cloud by day. The apostle Paul states in 1 Corinthians 10:4 that the Israelites drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ.
There’s a lot of evidence to indicate that the God who led the Israelites out of Egypt and the Commander of the LORD’s army were both the One who would become Jesus Christ.
Perhaps this is startling to you. Perhaps you think that Jesus had long hair and looked almost effeminate. You would be wrong. There’s nothing weak or wimpy about Jesus Christ. That’s one of the pictures we can take away from Joshua’s encounter with the Commander of the LORD’s army: our God is the victorious warrior. Read Revelation 19:11-16. The rider on the white horse, who is called Faithful and True and has the name “The Word of God,” will strike the nations with a sharp sword proceeding from His mouth. The God we serve is mighty and powerful, and none can stand before Him.
This is the God who said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.”
So in your life, with what do you come into contact that God says is holy? One thing you routinely encounter that God has declared holy is the Sabbath. How do you approach it? Do you metaphorically take off your sandals because the place where you are standing is holy? Do you treat the Sabbath as holy? Do you show it the honor it deserves because God has declared it holy? Think about it. What made that ground holy? God said it was. What makes the Sabbath holy? God says it is. Could some person come along later and say that the ground was not holy? Do people come along later and say that the Sabbath is no longer holy? No person has a higher authority than God to change His decrees.
Take some time to consider what God has declared holy and how you treat that item, that day, or that person. It’s important to your relationship with the God who created all things - the One who is Himself holy.
Let’s Fight On God’s Side
And at the seventh time, when the priests had blown the trumpets, Joshua said to the people, “Shout for the LORD has given you the city.” ~Joshua 6:16
How many hymns can you think of that refer to a battle?
The Battle Belongs to the Lord
The Battle Hymn of the Republic
Victory in Jesus
I?m in the Lord’s Army
Onward, Christian Soldiers
Stand Up, Stand Up for Jesus
Why? Why is this theme of a battle and fighting such a prevalent theme in our church hymns? Are you fighting a battle? Are you marching around a city, as Joshua was, to conquer it?
Not exactly. But you are involved in war, just as much as Joshua and the Israelites were in taking the land. You don’t war against flesh and blood, but against the wiles of Satan to deceive you and draw you away from God. If you are trying to fight this enemy on your own, you won’t win. You cannot hope to defeat Satan’s schemes through your own strength. You need Jesus Christ.
There’s an interesting encounter in Joshua 5:13-15. Joshua sees a heavenly army. He asks the commander of the army who he is for - Israel or the enemy. He is told neither! He is the commander of the army of the Lord. When Joshua worships him, when Joshua is told to take off his shoes because he’s on holy ground, we see that this commander is truly the Commander - the One who would become Jesus Christ. (If he’d worshipped an angel, he would’ve been rebuked. Additionally, an angel wouldn’t have made the ground holy.) The point is: Joshua’s battles would go in Joshua’s favor, IF he was fighting according to God’s will. It was a matter of Joshua fighting on God’s side - not God fighting on Joshua’s side.
Too often we talk in terms of God fighting on our side. How egocentric we are!! It’s not all about us! The world doesn’t revolve around us. The world is the Lord’s and all that is in it. We must make sure that we’re fighting battles because we’re seeking God first. We can’t begin a battle and then ask God to fight with us.
A battle is being waged all around us; let’s fight on God’s side.
Still Work to be Done
Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them. Joshua 18:1
Do you set goals for yourself? Do you have plans and projects you want to do? Do you have a bucket list? Do you make a to-do list for yourself every day, every week, every year?
I like lists. I find myself better organized to get more accomplished if I have spent some time thinking about what I want to get done. So I have a daily/weekly list. But accompanying that short-term framework, I also have longer range goals. Right now, my overarching goal is to accomplish everything that needs to be done by Passover: cleaning the whole house, working on the garden as the weather permits, finishing up formal homeschooling for the year, and preparing my heart and mind for the upcoming Holy Days. There are other goals and projects mixed in which have no definite end: I’m working on crocheting a blanket. I want to build a corner shelf in my kitchen. I’m reading the Bible each day.
The reality is: there’s a lot to be done. Inherent in the process of setting goals is using your time wisely - not only in being able to accomplish more, but also in accomplishing what is most important. When you set goals, you tend to put some thought into what is most important that has to be done first. That usually goes at the top of the list. Think about it on a tiny scale: grocery shopping. When I used to shop at the same store all the time, I got so I knew exactly where everything was. So when I’d make out my grocery list, I’d start by listing everything I knew I needed. Then I’d go back and arrange that list by where I’d find it in the store. That eliminates getting to the end of the store with a full cart and realizing you walked right by something that’s clear on the other side of the store .
Or think about running errands. I always plan my errands in sequence. If I have to go to the post office, the bank, the library, the grocery store, and the craft store, I plan them in the most efficient route. It would be the height of ridiculousness to drive right by one of the stops and end up having to drive miles out of my way to get back to it. Gas is expensive. But, really, time is much more valuable!
So I make lists. I work towards goals. But what happens when I have completed everything on my list? I throw the list away. What happens when I reach a goal? I turn my attention to what needs to be done next. There’s always something to do. There’s still work to be done.
I wonder if that’s how the Israelites felt when they finally took the land. It took seven years, from the time of the crossing of the Jordan, to reach the point where Joshua 18:1 records, “The land lay subdued before them.” This goal had been a long time coming! God had promised this land to Abraham some 500 years before! The goal of reaching the Promised Land had been before the people’s eyes since they came out of Egypt. Forty years of wandering in the wilderness had ensued. Seven years of conquering the land was behind them. Finally, they were there. Now what?
They started right. Joshua 18:1 says, “Then the whole congregation of the people of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the tent of meeting there. The land lay subdued before them.” They set up the tent of meeting, the place where they would worship God, where they could go to inquire of God. The implication is that, even though they’d reached their goal of taking the land, they knew they still needed God. They knew that worshiping God was still on their to-do list.
But we know how the story unfolded. Israel entered the period of the judges. They would start out serving God. Things would be going well. Then they’d start to serve the false gods around them. God would give them into the hands of their enemies who would make their lives miserable. So the Israelites would call out to God to save them. He’d send a judge to save them. Then, as long as that judge lived, the land would have rest and the people would serve God. As soon as that judge died, the cycle would start again: apostasy, oppression, repentance, salvation - over and over again.
So, does this history have any relevance to our lives today? Human nature is still the same. We are still tempted and drawn away from God and His ways by the things around us. We still have the tendency to seek God while there’s a goal to be met, when we know we need Him to help us get through whatever battle we’re presently fighting. But what do we do when we finally have finished the battle and are at rest? What do I do when I finish reading through the Bible? Do I set the Bible on the shelf and say, “O.K. That’s done. What book shall I read next?” What do I do when I’ve finally done everything that has to be done before Passover? Do I pat myself on the back and just let the house get dirty again, and, more importantly, stop evaluating my actions against the plumb line of God’s Word? What do we do when we’ve reached a major goal?
Too many people are deceived into thinking their major, long-term goals are their overarching reason d’être, their reason for existing. Some young people see finishing school as their overarching goal. Finishing school becomes their reason d’être. Then, when they’ve finished school, they don’t know what to do with themselves. Some mothers see their reason d’être as raising their children. So when the children are grown and out of the house, the mothers feel like they have no purpose in life. And the list goes on. Too many people feel like rudderless ships. They don’t know where they’re going in life because they don’t have that overarching goal, that purpose, that reason d’être. So they try to find it in temporal pleasures: doing what feels good at the moment, drugs, alcohol, relationships - all of which are unfulfilling in the end because they are not our reason d’etre.
They’re missing the main goal at the top of their to-do list: love God and serve Him forever.
Loving God and serving Him forever is the first thing which is written at the top of our daily project list. It’s the glasses through which we must view the rest of our endeavors. It becomes not just a goal to reach, but who we are. It’s not saying six sentences to God in the morning and then I’m done for the rest of the day. It’s not the first errand to accomplish when we’re out running errands; it’s the mantle we wear as we’re running those errands. Loving God and serving Him forever is indelibly written on our to-do lists - if we belong to God.
And, if we belong to God, God’s right there with us as we accomplish each more minor goal. The Israelites had conquered the land; it lay subdued before them. They set up the tent of meeting; God was with them, dwelling in the midst of Israel. They just had to keep God first in their lives. They just had to put Him and His ways at the top of their daily to-do list. There was still work to be done, and they desperately needed God to be part of their daily lives. We have to learn the lesson recorded for us: we have to be sure that God is dwelling in the midst of us, that He’s part of the fabric of our daily lives, that He’s at the top of our to-do list, that loving Him and serving Him forever is our primary goal, our reason d’être. Because, as long as we’re alive, there’s lots to accomplish; there’s still work to be done.
**It’s Just One Page
Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. . . . Joshua 10:25
Materials Needed: flip book
Many years ago, I gave Christopher a small pad of paper. Hours later he came back with a flip book that he’d created. Starting at the bottom, he drew a picture. The next page up, he drew a similar picture, with just minor variations. And so he continued until he had dozens of pages completed. When you flip through the pages, all of those minor variations become movement and action and tell the story.
Our lives, each day or event, is like one of those pages. It’s not perfect. In fact, things may be going quite wrong. But it’s just one day or event. It’s just one page. And we know who the page-turner is: our Sovereign God, Almighty Father, King of the universe. He’s the one who orders our lives and turns the pages.
Furthermore, we know the end of the story. We know what the very last page will look like - if we belong to God. We will dwell with God forever, in a place where there are no more tears, no more sorrows, no more pain, no more death.
So when you’re sitting on a page and you don’t like how the plot is progressing, remind yourself, “Do not be afraid or dismayed; be strong and courageous. .” because God has you. He loves you. He wants the very best for you. And you’re going to like it!
And this page right here today? Well, it’s just one page.
Clear the Forests
“Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass.” ~Joshua 21:45
In Joshua chapter 17, there’s an interesting story. The people of Ephraim and Manasseh came to Joshua and asked for more land, because they were so numerous. Joshua told them that they were strong enough to go clear the forest and to drive out the giants who lived in the land they’d already been given.
Then we read Joshua 21:45 where we’re told that not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed. So what were those promises?
God promised He’d be with them. God promised He’d give them an inheritance in the land. Can you think of any other promises in the Bible?
Well, God promised Noah that He’d never again destroy the whole earth with water. God promises salvation through Jesus Christ. God promises that Jesus is coming again. And like the promises to the house of Israel, God has promised to you that He’ll never leave you nor forsake you (Hebrew 13:5). He has also promised you an inheritance - eternal life in His kingdom.
But, like Hebrews 11:13-16 states, we may not see the realization of those promises in this life. We may die before Christ returns to set up His kingdom. But that doesn’t change our responsibility to live as subjects of that kingdom and of the King. We must never let life and the battles we must still face, the giants we must battle convince us that God isn’t or won’t keep His promises. Hebrews 12:1 says that since we have such a great cloud of witnesses, we must lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles and run the race set before us. That sin which so easily entangles is the lack of faith that God will keep His promises. That lack of faith can keep us from utilizing the gifts that God has already given us to fight the giants, to win the battles, and to clear the forest.
Make no mistake: you have the strength to accomplish the task God has set before you. Stay close to Him. Seek His will in your life. But clear the forests!
To Test You
“I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died,” ~ Judges 2:21
The story of Israel began with Abram. God called him and told him to go to a place that God would show him. He told him, once he got to Canaan, that He would give him every place where his foot would step. It was a huge inheritance. Only . . . Abraham didn’t live to see that promise fulfilled. And in fact, neither did his son Isaac, or his son Jacob, or his son Joseph. Joseph didn’t even stay in the land - he was sold as a slave in Egypt and never again lived in the land God had promised to give to Abraham.
But God brought Israel out of Egypt with many wonders - the ten plagues. He parted the waters of the Red Sea so the people would walk across on dry land - not wading through the mud even!! He gave them water from a rock. He gave them manna to eat. God gave them victories over their enemies - like Jericho and Ai and Sihon and Og. Over and over and over again, God showed His great power and His long- suffering with His people.
How did Israel respond to God’s desire for a covenant relationship with them? Oh, they were good for a while, but then it didn’t take long for them to complain, to murmur, and to serve the pagan gods of the nations around them. So we come to Judges 2:21. God was no longer willing to drive out the inhabitants of the land - about which He’d told His people that they’d become thorns in their flesh and snares to them.
It’s interesting: the word “left” as in “the nations that Joshua left” comes from a Hebrew word which means “permitted to continue.” So we could say the verse this way: I will no longer drove out before them any of the nations that Joshua permitted to continue when he died.
The next verse tells us that God left the inhabitants so that He could test the people to see if they would serve God or not. So. Why do you have problems in your life? Sometimes it’s just because we live in a fallen, sinful world. Sometimes it’s because God wants to know if we’re going to serve Him and praise Him - no matter what! We don’t know the end of the story.
There’s a great song out by Laura Story called “Blessings.” She sings “What if your blessings come through raindrops; what if your healing comes through tears; what if a thousand sleepless nights is what is takes to know you’re near.”
What if some of those things that we think are the troubles and trials of life are the things that God knows we need in order to get us into His kingdom. They are the things that build our character and mold us in the way He wants us to be. But we see them as troubles and trials and we get angry at God for allowing them.
We can’t get angry at God. We have to give Him praise for being our God, for being in control, for being Sovereign. Even if He never gives us anything else, He’s blessed us with His Son as our Savior and the promise of being adopted into the very family of God. Are we going to complain about a few thorns?
We must determine that we’re going to serve and praise God every day, all day, regardless of our circumstances. If things go well, we praise Him. If things don’t go well, we praise Him. He is worthy of our praise. He is our God.
Don’t fail the test!
The Battle Belongs to the Lord
It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. Judges 3:2
Have you endured any pre-Passover tribulations this year? Anything unusual or unexpected pop up in your life that discombobulated you within the past month or so? Ask some of the church members who have been around for awhile: it’s normal, and almost expected, to have some sort of problem before Passover.
Do you remember the story of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20? It’s the episode where the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Edomites all came up against Jehoshaphat and Judah. The Bible calls them “a great horde.”
And then there’s Judges 3:2: It was only in order that the generations of the people of Israel might know war, to teach war to those who had not known it before. In the previous chapter, God says, “I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died . . .” (Judges 2:21).
All three of these situations are guaranteed to produce one thing: a reaction in the people of God. So how did the people of Israel react when they had to go to war against the nations who were dwelling in the land? They didn’t react well. They won a few battles, but when things started going well, they began to be drawn away from serving God. They looked to those nations, the same ones against whom they would have to go to war, they would look to those nations to see how they worshipped their gods. Israel would adopt those pagan customs, over and over again!
How did Jehoshaphat react when he saw the hordes of people coming up against Judah for battle? He goes before God and retells how mighty our God is, how God had promised this land to the Israelites, how the people coming up against them were the ones God wouldn’t permit them to drive out of the land (the Ammonites, the Moabites, and the Edomites). Then in 2 Chronicles 19:12 Jehoshaphat says, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you?”
So, how do you react when you have problems in your life, unexpected things which range on the scale from annoying to life-threatening? What is your response?
God is very interested in your response to the trouble in your life. When God told the Israelites that He’d no longer drive out the inhabitants of the land, that the people would have to learn war, God also told them why. Judges 2:22 relates the reason: “in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the LORD as their fathers did, or not.”
When the Israelites, during the time of the judges, did not continue to walk in the ways of the LORD, God delivered them into the hands of their enemies. By contrast, when Jehoshaphat relied on God, God told Jehoshaphat to go out to battle, but that he would not have to fight the battle. Jehoshaphat believed and trusted God so completely, do you know who he sent out first? The singers! Praising God! This is not normally who goes first to engage in battle! But as they did, here’s what 2 Chronicles 20:22-23 says, “And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir . . . they all helped to destroy one another.” God gained the victory for them - indisputably!
Here’s the point of the whole thing: You’re going to have trouble in this life. It could be because of your own poor decisions. It could be because we live in a fallen world. It could be the Enemy fighting against you, trying to draw you away from our God. It could also be God testing you, to see what is in your heart. Regardless, when trouble comes, I want to react as Jehoshaphat did; I want to look to God and say, “I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are on you.” I want to have a close relationship with God, where I’ve daily communicated with Him, where I’ve asked Him to guide my steps and make my path straight before my feet. I do not want to follow the path of the Israelites during the time of the judges; I don’t want to go through their apostasy, servitude, supplication, and salvation cycles. But it’s a daily choice. I have a myriad of choices to make each day: one path leads to bumps and bruises and having to learn war; the other path may have a few bumps and bruises, but I rely on God to fight my battles. I’d rather the battle belonged to the Lord.
Who Will Save You?
Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more. Judges 10:13
My brother, Bob, was three years older than me. Even though he pestered me and aggravated me until I was almost ready to scream, numerous times he rescued me from whatever predicament in which I found myself. He’s the one who taught me to ride a bike. He’s the one who, after I badly sliced my foot open on a shard of glass, slung me over his back and carried me back to the ranch house - even though I was nearly the same weight. He was a great older brother.
Another interesting fact about my childhood was my proclivity to sleep walk and sleep talk.
These two facts, my active sleeping and my older brother, as rescuer, collided one night at my grandparents’ ranch. Bob heard noise from the room I shared with my sister and came to investigate. I was jumping up and down on my bed, yelling, “Get ‘em, Bobby! Get ‘em!” I had no recollection of it the next morning, so we’re not completely sure what I was dreaming.
The reality is: we all need to be rescued from things in this life. Who do we look to?
Judges 10:13 says, “Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more.” If God is not going to save us because we’ve forsaken Him and served other gods, maybe we’d figure out what serving other gods entails.
The outright worship of other gods is obvious. Burning your children in the fire to Molech, building an altar to Baal, baking cakes to the queen of heaven - those all fall into the category of serving other gods in a very obvious sense.
But there are less obvious ways of serving other gods. For instance, when Micah (in Judges 17-18) made his own ephod, ordained a Levite as a priest, he said, “Now I know the LORD will prosper me because I have a Levite as a priest” (Judges 17:13). Wow! He’d broken so many of God’s commandments. He had a houseful of gods. He set up a Levite, specifically Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, as a priest, when the priests were supposed to come only from Aaron’s line. Yet, Micah thought God would be pleased with him because he had a Levite as his priest. The syncretism, the blending of what was right in God’s sight with what was right in his own eyes, was incredible! Needless to say, God did not prosper Micah!
Another instance of syncretism, blending God’s ways with pagan ways, is seen in the construction of the golden calf. The Israelites took that calf and declared that the next day would be a festival to Jehovah! All the time they had disobeyed God by making a golden idol, they decide to worship the One True God with the very object of disobedience!
Disobedience can happen on a daily level too - even during the Days of Unleavened Bread. The command is to get the leavening out of your house, and out of your borders, for seven days. Some people think that’s a little over the top. They think God didn’t really mean for us to do that.
Then there are others who think you should get the leavening out, but they don’t do the other half of the command: to eat unleavened bread for seven days. Some people don’t like how it tastes and they really don’t think God would require it of us. He’d understand if we just don’t want to do it!
The curious thing about this whole continuum of disobedience from not wanting to eat unleavened bread to burning your own children in the fire to a pagan deity, the curious thing is that whenever you disobey God, you’ve put something else or someone else in His place; you’ve decided that something else trumps God. You’ve allowed something else to become first in your life. It can be your own desires. It can be the desires of your friend or boss. It can be the gods of your imagination.
So God has a message for you, if you’re going to put something or someone else before Him. Judges 10:13 says, “Yet you have forsaken me and served other gods; therefore I will save you no more.” And verse 14 goes on to say, “Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen, let them save you in the time of your distress.”
So, what’s the bottom line? Are we obeying God to obtain salvation? No, absolutely not! Our salvation is a free gift from God, through the blood of Jesus Christ, lest any man boast. Nevertheless, if we’re not willing to obey God, it’s an indication that we may not have trusted Jesus Christ for our salvation. Our works are evidence of the new creature that was begun in us when we repented of our sins, accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to pay the penalty for our sins, and were baptized to receive the indwelling of Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
My older brother died almost thirteen years ago, but truly, he couldn’t really save me from all of the trouble I can get myself into anyway. But I have an Older Brother, Jesus Christ. Hebrews 7:25 says, “Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.”
But you have to draw near to be saved. That’s implies an intimate relationship. That implies obedience to God’s law. That underlines even the necessity of eating unleavened bread every day during the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Who will save you?
***The Presence of the LORD
But he did not know that the LORD had left him. Judges 16:20
Material needed: small toy, stuffed animal, etc. (During the following discussion, have someone swipe the toy/stuffed animal. If the kids don’t notice, bring it up. If the kids do notice, use it as an example of being aware of God’s presence.)
Here we are - at the end of the Days of Unleavened Bread. We’ve eaten unleavened bread for seven days. Do you remember why we did that? Well, first, because God said to! But also, we eat unleavened bread as a reminder to seek God and His ways, to choose Him when making decisions, to take Jesus into our hearts (thoughts, words, and deeds) always. Regardless of how you say it, it’s a matter of being totally devoted to Him, seeking to do His will in all things. The discipline of eating unleavened bread for seven days is a good reminder to eschew the ungodly choices that are all around us.
So someone might ask why we don’t eat unleavened bread all the time and keep the leavening out always. If we did that, we soon would lose the awareness of how easily sin can manifest itself in our lives from the most unexpected places. And really, yeast isn’t bad for 51 weeks out of the year. Just for one week it becomes a symbol for us - an object lesson - a teaching tool.
As we go back to eating yeasty bread again, we are reminded that it’s not that the yeast is sin, but that we need to carry the lessons of the Days of Unleavened Bread through the rest of the year. As we go back to our lives and to eating bread, we can’t become so distracted that we forget to keep God first, to seek His ways first, to want to please Him first!
That’s why this scripture scares me! Samson was so caught up in his life that he didn’t even realize that the LORD had left him!! Saul knew that God’s presence had left him, and he was scared of David because the LORD was with David!! (1 Samuel 18:12) And then there’s the Presence of the LORD leaving the temple in Ezekiel 10. For the people to become so wicked that God’s Presence would leave the place that was called by His Name!! That should scare you half to death!!
It’s a valuable lesson! We’re going back to eating leavened bread tomorrow. But we mustn’t forget to keep God first! We must keep our eyes on Him, seeking Him will all of our hearts. It would be terrible if He left us and we didn’t even notice.
What Is Right in Your Own Eyes
“In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” ~ Judges 21:25
Judges is a hard book to read. It is a record of the cyclical history of Israel: They serve God; God blesses them; Israel forgets God; God allows their enemies to oppress Israel; Israel repents and turns to God; God saves them from their enemies; Israel serves God; God blesses them; Israel forgets God . . . and so on.
There are some particularly disturbing passages: Samson’s attraction to Philistine women, Gideon’s ephod, Micah ordaining a priest, the tribe of Dan stealing Micah’s idol and priest, the Sodom-like conduct in Gebeah, Benjamin’s refusal to turn over the criminals resulting in civil war, and Israel’s condoning kidnapping for Benjamin to acquire wives after the war.
In instance after instance, the people did what was right in their own eyes. They didn’t seek God. They didn’t ask for His direction. They didn’t follow His laws. But, you know, we’re not too different from Israel. Our carnal nature is emnity against God; we always seek our own way and our own pleasure. What’s worse is that we want to decide for ourselves what is right and what is wrong. (It always goes back to the Garden of Eden!) We want to do what is right in our own eyes.
Usually that translates to whatever gives us pleasure or makes us comfortable. I want to challenge you to think: is it right or is it just easier? Most of the time, we want what is easy, whether it is right or not. Again, we have a tendency to lean towards what makes us happy in the short term, what makes us feel good right now, what benefits us in the present.
But God’s perspective is for eternity and He knows what we need to get us there. It’s time to trust Him in all things. We need to do what is right in God’s eyes.
Gleaning from Ruth
But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Ruth 1:16
Do you know the story of Ruth? She marries into a Jewish family which is sojourning in Moab because there’s a famine in their land. First, Ruth’s father-in-law dies. Then her husband and her brother-in-law die. Then her mother-in-law, Naomi, gets word that God has given his people food: the famine is over. So Naomi prepares to go back to her hometown, Bethlehem. She has such a strong relationship with her daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, that they both intend to go with her. But she basically tells them there’s no future for them; they need to go back to their own families so that they can eventually find new husbands. Orpah goes back to her own family. But Ruth utters these famous words: “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.”
What unfolds is a beautiful story of a God-honoring woman who obeys her mother-in-law. God blesses Ruth with a husband, but a husband who is a close relative of Naomi: a kinsman-redeemer. But the story gets better! Ruth becomes the great-grandmother of King David, and therefore, the ancestor of Jesus, the Messiah. This beautiful story, from the time of the judges, is such a huge contrast to the human failings, the carnality, displayed so prominently in the book of Judges. In addition, it is rich in foreshadowing events in the life of one of Ruth’s descendants, Jesus Christ.
There was a day when Jesus was teaching in Capernaum when he told the crowd, “I am the bread that came down from heaven. . . . I am the bread of life. . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” This was such a hard thing for the people to hear that many turned back from following Jesus, the Messiah.
Perhaps it’s just coincidence that Bethlehem means “house of bread.” Perhaps it’s just coincidence that Elimelech and Naomi left Bethlehem because of a famine. Perhaps it’s just coincidence that the author of Ruth phrases the reason for Naomi’s return to Bethlehem: Naomi “heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them food.” Perhaps it’s just coincidence that Jesus said he was the bread that came down from heaven. But the next section in John 6:66-68 is so striking: After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”
Ruth had seen something in Naomi that caused her to be willing to stay with her, to give up her family, her country, her home, her gods in order to follow her. Similarly, Peter and the other disciples knew that Jesus had what they needed for eternal life.
There’s another interesting parallel. After Christ’s resurrection, yet before He’d ascended to the Father, Mary Magdalene stood weeping outside the tomb. Jesus asked her why she was weeping. Mary didn’t recognize him until He called her “Mary.” Then Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” This is so similar to what Ruth originally said to Naomi. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. And yet, at the time she said it to Naomi, it’s doubtful that she knew Boaz would come forward to be her kinsman-redeemer. But Jesus knew. Jesus knew that in His death and resurrection, He would become the kinsman-redeemer to all who are called according to the will of the Father, to all who believe on His name for salvation.
Look at what Jesus says to Mary: “Go to my brothers.” In Christ’s death and resurrection, we are adopted into the family of God. Then Jesus makes it very clear to Mary - because he’s paralleling the words of a story that would have been very familiar to those who knew the scriptures, the story of Ruth. In using that structure, Jesus was telling Mary that He, Jesus, had become the kinsman-redeemer to his people. It’s such an interesting parallel. Jesus’ disciples went with Christ; they followed Him wherever He went. Through His death and resurrection, His people (the Father) became their people (their Father) and His God their God (reconciled to the Father through the Son).
The barley harvest is just beginning this year; why don’t you read the book of Ruth again, and see what you can glean.
My Kinsman-Redeemer
Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a kinsman-redeemer, and may his name be renowned in Israel. Ruth 4:14
The first time I saw Jason Gray’s video of “Remind Me Who I Am,” I was so struck by the reality of the words. We are, each of us, sinful, carnal human beings who manage to embroil ourselves in ungodly situations. Some of the signs in the video are unloved, rejected, angry, betrayed, used, refugee, addict. All of them tug at the heart as realization of the universality of the hopelessness of existence without Christ sets in.
That’s where Naomi found herself. Her husband has died. She’s too old to get a new husband. Her two sons have died. She has no one to perpetuate the family name.
Because of the relationship between Naomi and Ruth, Ruth is determined to follow Naomi back to Bethlehem. But it’s not an easy life. Ruth is found with the poor of the land, gleaning the fields for food after the harvesters have taken the shocks of grain. It’s dangerous (as inferred in Ruth 2:8-9). It’s very hard work. Both Naomi and Ruth are struggling just to have enough food to eat.
Enter the kinsman-redeemer. Who was the kinsman-redeemer? Boaz? To whom was he a kinsman-redeemer? He was the close kinsman of Naomi’s dead husband, Elimelech. But what was a kinsman-redeemer?
A kinsman-redeemer was God’s merciful way of rescuing a person from dire conditions. If a person found themselves in debt, they could sell themselves. A kinsman-redeemer could redeem them, pay their debt. If a person sold a piece of property, their inheritance from the Lord, the kinsman-redeemer could buy the parcel back to keep it in the family. (Leviticus 25) The redemption needed by both Naomi and Ruth was the perpetuation of the line of Elimelech. By marrying Ruth, Boaz purposed to fulfill that need (Ruth 4:5), to perpetuate the name fo the dead in his inheritance.
A kinsman-redeemer had to be a close relative, but, as we see in Ruth 4:6, that didn’t always ensure he would provide the needed redemption. There also had to be the desire to redeem. Otherwise, the opportunity would fall to the next closest relative. Boaz, in the story of Ruth, was not the closest relative, but he was the one who cared about Ruth enough to redeem Naomi’s land and to marry Ruth.
So, this beautiful story of Ruth reaches down to King David and on to our Messiah, Jesus Christ - the ultimate kinsman-redeemer.
But wait? Are we related to Him? Is He our kinsman? Jesus said that those who do the will of His Father in heaven are His brothers and sisters (Mark 3:35). Furthermore, Romans tells us that we are part of the family of God, that our spirit testifies with His Spirit that we are the children of God (Romans 8:15-17; Galatians 4:6; 1 John 3:2). Jesus is our Elder Brother. He’s our kinsman.
Furthermore, there’s no doubt that he’s our Redeemer. (Job 19:25; Psalm 19:14; Isaiah 44:6, 48:17, 59:20; 1 Corinthians 1:30)
In essence, the story of Ruth foreshadows Jesus Christ becoming our Kinsman-Redeemer. We have been sold as slaves to sin (Romans 7:14), and while we were yet sinners (Romans 5:8), God sent His Son, who knew no sin, to become sin for us, to become the propitiation for our sin (I John 2:2), reconciling us to the Father (Romans 5:10-11, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20). This is huge! Remember the two qualities of the kinsman-redeemer? First, He had to have the means. Jesus Christ is the only One who could pay the sin debt for all mankind. No one else is worthy. Because He is the builder of the house, Jesus is worth more than all of the house (Hebrews 3:3). He is the only possible proper payment! (1 John 4:10; Romans 3:25) So Jesus had the means to redeem us.
Secondly, He had to care, to have the desire to redeem us. Stop to think about this! These human beings, these created beings who owe everything they have and their very lives to God, are nevertheless in rebellion against God (Romans 8:7). Yet, while we were yet sinners God sent His Son to die for us. That’s love of a magnitude that we cannot even comprehend.
I love the story of Ruth. The character of Ruth and Boaz is so admirable and praiseworthy. But their lives give glory to God beyond what we can see within these four chapters. As the writer of Hebrews said of Abel, we can also say of Ruth and Boaz: “And by faith [they] still speak, even though [they] are dead” (Hebrews 11:4). Both of their lives are woven into the tapestry of lives who testify to God’s plan, God’s greatness, God’s character. Not only are they honored to be the progenitors of Jesus Christ, they also get to foreshadow the gospel and His work on the cross to become our Kinsman-Redeemer. Wow! What a legacy!
Beloved of Christ, what do you think your legacy will look like?